Jason Moran & The Bandwagon

Jason Moran’s status as one of the most gifted and acclaimed jazz stars to emerge in the past 15 years is a matter of record. So is his 2010 MacArthur Fellowship, informally known as the “genius grant,” and his position as a first-call pianist for such luminaries as saxophonist Charles Lloyd, drummer Jack DeJohnette and singer Cassandra Wilson. n Less noted, but equally notable, is this Texas native’s status as a self-acknowledged workaholic with a tireless devotion to his chosen art form.

“I don’t know when — or where — my limit is, but I might be reaching it,” Moran, 38, said from a recent concert tour stop with Lloyd in Finland. “I’m doing a lot right now, but the music demands that. And the health of the music demands that.”

In addition to composing, touring and having recorded 10 increasingly assured solo albums since 1999, Moran has been featured on nearly 60 albums by other artists.

He teaches at both the New England Conservatory of Music and the Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he lives with his wife, singer Alicia Hall Moran, and their 4-year-old twin sons, Jonas and Malcolm. Since late 2011, he has served as the Artistic Advisor for Jazz at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

That position was previously held by fellow pianist Dr. Billy Taylor, who died in 2010. Taylor was one of the nation’s foremost champions of jazz, through his work at the Kennedy Center and nationwide, and as a featured correspondent on the weekly CBS national TV show “Sunday Morning.”

“This allows me to continue what Dr. Taylor had done at the Kennedy Center, which is to create a forum for jazz, to present the finest music, and to make sure we present the full spectrum of the music,” Moran explained. “I not only curate the performances, I lead the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program, which is an intensive, two-week, annual program for musicians under 25. I also commission pieces from other artists. (Saxophone giant) Wayne Shorter is writing a piece for the National Symphony Orchestra, which we’ll debut in the fall.”

Always eager to think and act outside of the box, Moran last fall put together a jazz and comedy concert at the Kennedy Center. It teamed his stellar trio, The Bandwagon, with comics David Alan Grier, Faizon Love and Marina Franklin.

‘A dream position’

Under Moran’s guidance, the Kennedy Center has also hosted such diverse offerings as a jazz tribute to the songs of Oscar winner Randy Newman, a concert series by various Scandinavian jazz artists and the first Kennedy Center performance in 20 years by saxophonist Anthony Braxton.

For the center’s upcoming 2013/2014 season, Moran is stretching even further.

“It’s a dream position to be in,” Moran said. “Not only do I get to see a lot of great music, but I’ve found an outlet — in the nation’s capital — to make sure the music is presented in the best way it can be.

“I knew Dr. Taylor. We spent time together, and he talked about the future of the music. He wanted to make sure the culture of the music was attached to jazz — the African-American culture, the relationship to gender, to race, to socioeconomics — and that they do not get separated from the music. He wanted to work with artists who are willing to have those discussions. He was really forward-looking in that way, and people gave him their trust.”

Moran’s position is a unique one that, in a manner, brings him full circle to his teen years.

“From being a teacher and educator, I see the state of the music through the eyes of an 18-year-old coming on to the scene, and we want to make sure it stays intact,” he said. “With my generation, it’s our duty to do that. Because when I was 18, I was looking at the musicians who were around 40 and thinking of them as the standard-bearers who would help our generation. I wondered how they were able to manifest that energy. And, now, I’m in this position to aid this music in the same way Wynton (Marsalis) has in New York (as the head of Jazz at Lincoln Center).”

Expansive musical approach

Moran is a product of Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which also counts Beyoncé and such notable jazz musicians as drummer Eric Harland and 2013 Grammy Award-winning keyboardist Robert Glasper among its former students.

The classically trained Moran had his first jazz epiphany at 14, when he heard piano giant Thelonious Monk’s unaccompanied 1957 recording of “ ’Round Midnight.” An ardent hip-hop fan at the time, Moran dove into jazz and never looked back.

His albums as a band leader showcase his constantly evolving musical vision as a composer, arranger and band leader. They also find him adding a unique spin to compositions by such disparate artists as Monk, Shorter, Duke Ellington, Conlon Nancarrow, Björk and hip-hop pioneers Afrika Bambaataa & Soul Sonic Force.

“Monk created a good amount of the (bebop) language that everybody on that scene — Bud Powell, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie — went on to develop,” Moran said.

“He had a sense of gravity that people were drawn to. Afrika Bambaataa is the same. He and Monk both represent this departure from the forms they exist in. They represent the vanguard of each of those forms.”

Like Monk and Bambaataa before him, Moran is a master of musical reconfiguration. His enthusiasm for his art seems limitless.

“Music is the way in which I’m able to express myself as a human, and I definitely was not aware of that when I was starting out,” he said. “But I was excited when I started out, and I’m still excited to be doing it now.”